A new report from research firm DFC Intelligence predicts that worldwide revenue from video game related software products will see growth between $52 to $70 billion by the year 2017. According to DFC, that growth will be divided among three core sectors: PC (39 percent), game consoles (36 percent), and mobile devices (35 percent).

David Cole, CEO of DFC Intelligence, says that the industry is changing but the core demographic that buys games will remain mostly the same: male, age 12 - 30. The most important part of that growth, he claims, is in providing access and making it easier for that core demographic to make the purchases they want.

DFC partnered with several companies to come to sharper conclusions about different sectors; for PC gaming it turned to social game network Xfire and for free-to-play titles it partnered with Live Gamer. In the PC games, DFC notes that two of the three biggest PC Games in Europe and North America had no retail presence (Minecraft, League of Legends, and Diablo III). These games have seen as many as one million active users a day on a regular and consistent basis.

Working with Live Gamer, DFC found that core players make purchases several times a year in free-to-play titles in sums of $20 to $50. Further, they say that a successful game should rely on the average paying consumer to spend $75 a year for two years.

DFC also found that core gamers use mobile devices regularly and in growing numbers, but they are dissatisfied with the game offerings traditionally available at social networks like Facebook.

Finally, DFC predicts that revenue from browser-based games will exceed $8 billion by 2017, if game developers and publishers can cater more to core gamers.